NW Face of East Lovenia (13,032)

The early afternoon Sun and the dusting of snow highlight the breaks in the cliff bands of the notoriously loose slopes of the NW aspect of the peak. Both NE Ridge and W ridge could be followed to the top with some traversing around cliffs.

Seems like I've already taken to your Lovenias since they make me think hard:). So surely the background looks great but I also like the foreground as there's the grasses: alpine tundra or steppes? Or both? A matter of definition maybe, as usual.

Alpine meadows and alpine tundra are a continuum of sorts, both are above the timberline, classic meadows have taller grasses and classic tundras have low shrubs, but the transition may be smooth! I would call this picture's foreground meadows, because the plants are taller and the shrubs are virtually absent. Timberline is at about 11,000 ft in the Uintas.

Steppe, or prairie as this habitat is better known in the West, is generally below 7-8,000 ft in the Uintas. Still there are many forested areas in the foothill prairie, especially along the creeks.

All of these areas recieve too much precipitation to be a true desert, but our popular tradition still names the driest, lowest-elevation parts of Utah "deserts". Annual precipitation there is 150-200 mm, so it is scientifically a semi-desert at best.

I guess true desert can only be inside a (wo)man's heart. As for terms and categorizing, it looks like we're going too academic. If the amount of precipitation is the criterion, then tundra is actually semi-desert:)(I personally prefer the more ecological/plant science stand.) Anyway, I found the timberline at 3,300m sort of shocking high, probably partly because what we call timberline here (I suppose it might be a Russian:) influence, or perhaps German) is a few hundred metres below the US/British timberline, that is to say the mtn pine zone here is above the timberline:). But talking of those trees at 11,000 ft, it's clear evidence it's still quite warm at this aL(slowed down:))titude. Consequently, there should be - wasn't it more like this in the Caucasus? - more ALPINE TUNDRA MEADOWS:D up above there near the mtn tops. Can so much snow and glaciers just gone have anything to do with that?

There is some intuitive truth in comparing tundra to semi-desert, of course. Even though it has plenty of water, the plants have difficult time utilizing water efficiently when it is too cold. (Just like the plants of peat bogs often show signs of adaptation to dryness, such as waxy / hairy leaves, because they just can't use the cold groundwater well).

That's why the subalpine meadows of the Caucasus are so lush, because they have both water (from snowmelt runoff) and warmer temperatures. In the Uintas, summers are usually too short and too cold for the meadows to be so rich.

And, much more 'mechanically' tundra could be likened to semi-desert as the precipitation's often below 250mm. Thus:
<100mm artic/polar desert;
100-250 low tundra = "arctic semi-desert"
250-500 lusher tundra = "arctic steppe" :-)
You know I'm not a fan of such mechanical approach but it looks quite logical once we accept "arctic desert":)

Up to 2m? But that'll be mainly winter snow, right?
BTW I've found 2-3 pics which might fit in your Age of Canvas, though one shows an external-frame backpack as well - late '70s - might be too modern I'm afraid:)
PS Thanks for the MAP link though it doesn't work yet:))

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